You are a CPA who has been preparing tax returns for Sign, Seal, and Deliver, a midsize CPA firm, for the last 5 years. During the current year, you are assigned the individual return of a new client, Guadalupe Piaz. Guadalupe has completed and returned the tax return questionnaire that the firm sent to her.
In reviewing the questionnaire, you notice that Guadalupe has included an entry for $10,000 in cash dividends received from Quinn Corporation. However, there is no supporting documentation for the dividend payment in the information Guadalupe provided.
What concerns you is that until this year, you had prepared the tax return for Quinn Corporation. (It was reassigned to another firm member when you were promoted late last year.) You know that Quinn Corporation was organized as an S corporation during the years that you prepared the return. During that period, Quinn was equally owned by 3 shareholders, and Guadalupe was not among them. In addition, the corporation was highly profitable, averaging approximately $6,000,000 per year in taxable income. Given this information, what are your obligations under the Statements on Standards for Tax Services (Appendix D)? Write a memorandum to your supervisor explaining your concerns and what actions, if any, you will need to take before you can prepare Guadalupe’s return.